Over the past season, Rob MacCachren has raced five trucks in as many series in 75 off-road races covering 35 weekends.

In a career that started in 1982 when he was 16, MacCachren has won more than 270 races.

He knows off-road racing, making MacCachren the perfect expert to discuss the first – and one of the boldest ever – Baja 1000s organized by first-year SCORE owner Roger Norman.

“I think Roger has a lot of great ideas about the Baja 1000 and where he wants to take SCORE as a series,” MacCachren said between practice runs for this week’s 46th edition of the most grueling single-day event in motorsports.

“Roger wants to take the sport to another level. That is hard and expensive. Many of the racers expected things to change immediately when Roger took over and announced his plans. The reality for all of us is that’s it’s not that simple.

“He probably didn’t understand all the things he needed to do in Mexico. How could he? But I see this race possibly being a turning point.”

In many aspects, “this” Baja 1000 is unlike any of the 45 that preceded it.

--The 883-mile course – with the start and finish line in Ensenada -- is the longest loop course in the history of SCORE and off-road racing.

--Instead of drawing for starting order, there will be qualifying runs for most pro classes.

--The motorcycles and ATVs will start late Thursday night with the four-wheel vehicles going off in 30-second intervals start at 9 the following morning.

“Drivers wanted different courses, different routes,” said MacCachren. “Roger delivered. We’re seeing areas in this Baja 1000 that we’ve never seen before. This is the toughest loop race I’ve ever seen. Some drivers think it is too tough.

“But it is supposed to be hard. This is the Baja 1000.”

A fact that former overall winner Norman recognizes.

“This race is a culmination of a lot of things and a sign of what we want to do moving forward,” said part-time San Diego resident Norman, who bought SCORE from Sal Fish after last year’s Baja 1000.

Norman’s immediate goal is to strengthen SCORE inside the sport. Next year he will merge the two series he owns – SCORE and the High Desert Racing Association – into a single six-race series that will have full fields (including motorcycles and ATV in the United States races) on both sides of the international border.

With the Baja 1000, Norman has transformed a two-day race into a five-day event that he expects will attract more than 300,000 spectators to the event that includes kick-off parties Wednesday and Thursday nights.

In the future, Norman wants to see SCORE races on network television. He has an agreement with ABC-ESPN to televise the Baja 1000 in two shows. Unfortunately, this week’s race won’t be televised until the day after Christmas.

“The only tough thing about taking SCORE to the next level is promoting it to the next level,” said Norman. “UFC had the same problem. The networks want a given. They want to know people will love the product in advance.

“We’re doing everything we can to get a licensing agreement with a major network. It just hasn’t happened yet.”

Since taking over SCORE, Norman has introduced a weekly one-hour “television” show on the web that has attracted 1.2 million viewers since February. He has taken steps to promote SCORE’s top drivers like MacCachren.

And he has introduced a new level of technical support to off-road racing that enhances the experience for drivers and fans alike.

Followers of the sport can sit at their computers for the next three days and track any vehicle they please. Every vehicle in the Baja 1000 – and every SCORE racing moving forward – will carry GPS-based tracking devices to determine who might be short-cutting the course as well as any drivers who might need help.

“Each racer will have three buttons on their transmitter,” said Norman. “One is for mechanical assistance. One is for medical assistance. The third is a SOS.”

The tracking system will also allow SCORE to post the results faster than they did during the earliest races of Norman’s reign.

“We are addressing everything,” said Norman. “Some changes for the eventual good come with bumps.”

But off-road racing is all about bumps – and ruts, dust and rocks.

“We’re just dirt people,” MacCachren said of his brethren. “It’s still a sport of families and buddies. A lot of it is a love for labor and discomfort. Off-road racing can get through anything.”

MacCachren, who will have another former overall champion Andy McMillin as his co-driver in the Baja 1000, races in two desert (SCORE and the Nevada-based Best in The Desert) series and three short-course series.

“I think there are too many promoters,” said MacCachren. “The overall sport would be better if there would be fewer options and bigger fields.”